15. ÖMG-Kongress
Jahrestagung der Deutschen Mathematikervereinigung

16. bis 22. September 2001 in Wien


Minisymposium Mathematik und Emigration
Montag, 17. September 2001, 15.00, Audimax der Universität Wien

 

Kurt Gödel, Max Dehn and the trans-Siberian escape route

John W. Dawson, Penn State York

 

Between them, Kurt Gödel and Max Dehn settled the first three of the problems on Hilbert's 1900 list. Both also escaped from the Nazis via the trans-Siberian railway - the only mathematicians of stature to do so, so it seems - and lived thereafter in the United States. I will compare and contrast the careers of the two men, their accomplishments before and after their emigration, and the circumstances of their escapes: Why and how they left when they did, how they overcame the obstacles to their emigration, and how they were received by academic institutions in the U.S. The talk will be illustrated with reproductions of documents from European and American archives, and will include excerpts from an unpublished speech by Dehn in which he recounted details of his journey across the U.S.S.R.


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